DVD Reviews

The Time Traveler’s Wife – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Feb 9, 2010, 13:33 GMT

Lose yourself in timeless love with this gloriously romantic story of the journey of two hearts. Artist Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams of The Notebook) shares a deep emotional bond with Henry De Tamble (Eric Bana of The Other Boleyn Girl), a handsome librarian who travels involuntarily through time. Knowing they can be separated without warning, Clare and Henry treasure the moments they have together, imbuing them with the yearning and ...more

The story of the Time Traveler’s Wife is from the best-selling book by Audrey Niffenegger. It’s a moving, graceful film but the concept of time travel might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

If you have fond memories of Somewhere in Time then this film might also hit that same emotional cord.

Young Henry DeTamble (Alex Ferris) is riding with his mother (Michelle Nolden) down the highway after the pair did some Christmas shopping. A minor traffic accident sends the car skidding towards certain doom and Henry literally fades away.

The boy finds himself naked and back two weeks before. He hides in the shadows watching himself, his father (Arliss Howard) and mother in simpler times than the currently occurring car accident. Just as quickly as he faded to this time he fades back to the current time to witness his mother’s death in the conflagration of the crashing car.

An older man (Eric Bana) runs up to put a blanket around the naked boy and says that he’s an older Henry and that he can time travel during times of stress thanks to a genetic anomaly.

The older Henry returns to his own time where he is a Chicago librarian, recovers his clothes, and goes back to his lonely life. Henry then later meets Clare (Rachael McAdams) in the library.

The odd thing is that to Henry Clare is a stranger, yet Clare says that she has known Henry for most of her life (such is time travel). The two begin a romance, eventually marry, and have all of the troubles know to couples, but Henry’s time traveling sickness soon threatens to separate them forever.

Both time and tide are cruel mistresses as Henry DeTamble can testify. Also sometimes adapting a best-selling novel into a movie format can be a cruel mistress as well. The filmmakers wisely decide to focus on the love story aspects of the novel.

In doing so they cause me to remember Somewhere in Time, another time-crossed lover’s tale. Each film features romance that leads to a heart-breaking finale and wonderful performances by their leads (Somewhere also features some grand Mackinac Island scenery). I’m an old softie when it comes to these types of romantic films (shhh, don’t tell anyone) and especially when they’re done right.

Bana and McAdams have a great chemistry (which is where the not-so-well-done romantic films usually falter) and the time traveling quirk also fits this into a science-fiction subcategory. That quirk might get your sci-fi junkie significant other to be tricked into watching a romance, but it may also cause troubles for the romance junkie lured in to watching the film.

I remember trying to explain Back to the Future II to my dad and coming up with him just looking confused. I’d imagine that he’d just fall asleep during this one (which to be honest is what he does more and more these days according to mom).

The time traveling aspect certainly takes some time to get your head around. However, the charm of the two leads pulls you though that time tunnel.

The Time Traveler’s Wife is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The only special features is the 21 minute “Love beyond Words” making of.

Uber-fans of novel might blanche at what may have been left out (I read it long enough ago that I couldn’t be more specific) but romance film lovers will be held aloft for an out of time romance.